Entering Quarter 1 Comments
Revised: 10-18-2007

1. Login to FA Web as you would normally do.
2. Click on the Gradebook Tab at the top of the screen
3. Change the current marking column to Q1
4. Click in the cell under the Q1 marking column next to the first student's name in your class
5. Click the Comments button on the right hand side of the page (see screen shot below):

sshot1.gif

6. Go ahead and type your comment...be sure to click the Save button in the comment window quite frequently.
7. When you are done typing the comment, spell check the comment and click Save and Close at the bottom of the window. You'll notice that the cell is now highlighted green-this is a visual cue that a comment exists for that particular student.
8. Save and Save and Save often
9. Repeat steps 4-8 in order to submit a comment for your next student.

When you are done typing your comments, be sure to exit the program by clicking the Exit button in the on the FA Web page. This is important to do so that you can free up a license for someone else.

NOTE: If you'd like to make a backup copy for yourself, type your comments in Word and then Copy>Paste them into the comments program (you can only Copy>Paste into the comments by doing a Ctrl>V on the windows side and an Apple>V on the Mac side). Please don't use any special formatting/fonts, etc when writing in your word processor as these sometimes goof things up when Edie dumps the comments into the report cards.

What if FA Web isn't accessible? A good question warrants a good reply! Write your comments in Word, save them and make backups to two other locations (like USB drives or an external hard drive)...When FA Web comes back to life you can then Copy>Paste into the program.


Important Note #1: It is extremely important that you follow these directions carefully, especially the part about being certain that you enter your grades in the Q1-Mid Marking column. If you don't follow the directions, it could take you a considerable amount of time to correct the work.

Important Note #2: It is very important that you save and save often while working in FA Web...not doing so can cause you to lose work!

Important Note #3: I recommend using Firefox for writing your comments. Firefox has a built-in spell checker that is clutch when writing comments in FA Web. Also, for you Mac fans, Firefox works better than Safari with FA Web.

Important Note #4: If you are writing comments in Word and cutting and pasting into FA Web, keep the formatting very simple. Additionally, please single space comments and do not place an extra line of space between comments when writing in Word. If you write "1st" in reference to the first quarter, please be sure that the "st" is the same size as all of the other characters. Word will make the st very small, and when this is pasted into FA Web it causes all of the text downstream of the "st" to be super small as well. Either spell out "first" or erase the small "st" that appears in Word and replace with the normal size st.

Important Note #5: It is not necessary to write your name and contact information after each comment.

Important Note #6: Internet Explorer and pop-ups...FA Web is a program that relies on "Pop-Up" windows. By default, Internet Explorer disables pop-ups. Be sure to allow pop-ups in Internet Explorer when working with FA-Web (or use Firefox and you won't have to worry about this).